Anazyling, Interupeting, and Assessing Visual Art

Analyzing, Interpreting, and Assessing Visual Art

Emily D Huerta

ARTS/230

January 18, 2016

  Robin Richie

Analyzing, Interpreting, and Assessing Visual Art

Jacob Lawrence, Barber Shop, 1946 was has a very appealing fundamentals portrayed. The lines in this painting are contour lines. They are making the objects notably into people cutting hair. The shapes are all diamond/triangle shapes with so many angles like that it does make it harder for eyes to just rest on the painting. The colors are very jarring and do not go hand and hand with each other. The coloring in the painting are very bright orange as a background color. The reds and whites are showing the contrasts between the barbers and patrons in the shop. The space is a flat space with more positive spaces creating the difference in the background and the men in the painting cutting hair. The rules in perception has been distorted to create a more abstract look to the painting. The only shapes the artist uses are triangles creating a perception altered reality of cutting hair in a barber shop but you still are able to see the men doing such as you see a man sitting in a barber chair, smoking, and getting a haircut. (Sayre, 2013, ).

In the painting Barber Shop, there is a simple task that is doing portrayed but the only rhythm is the shapes and patterns. The shapes are same thought out the painting maintaining a flow. Unity comes through the Barber Shop so strong. The painting gives off a sense of community and connection. The men are painted black showing that this painting as a setting in an African American community, they all come to the barber shop to have conversation and, get their haircut. The setting creates a very busy establishment, there are is a man smoking, and three men cutting hair. This much going on in the painting create arity within the painting. The balance in this paining is not really there to a point the bottom is very heavy but the top does not counter that as if the artist had done this purposefully. (Sayre, 2013, ).

Barber Shop has a lot of visual design to it and not all by the rules a person would think of. The artist clearly tells you by the title of the painting that it is about a barber shop. The more details about the painting are in the visual design itself. The coloring of men’s faces indicate that they are in an African American community. The coloring in patterns on the barber’s shirts match the coloring on the men getting haircuts indicting the constants conversations they have as they are cutting the patrons hair. All the chairs are filled and the barbers are busying working on them indicting a very busy barber shop as well. The artist also did not want picture like painting because he went the abstract route so he could provide more details about the setting without having to paint the background in the process. (Sayre, 2013, ).